It’s getting unwieldy, this bandwagon.

Years — we say years — ago, before it was in fashion, your Ketchikan Daily News averred that there should be a new beginning for groundhog day. For, it was apparent, we in Ketchikan and elsewhere in Southeast have no groundhogs, rendering the shadow-spotting possibility moot.

We, along with Wasilla Rep. Lydia Menard, recommended adopting the marmot (hoary in nature) instead. In fact, the state did just that. Rain City Ralphie did nicely for us (a/k/a Revilla Roy), predicting an early spring. And that early-spring prediction is why we hire the little creature, isn’t it?

Now Spokane has tried to muscle its way under the spotlight. A column in the Spokesman-Review suggests a remake of Bill Murray’s iconic “Groundhog Day” movie starring not Punxsutawney Phil in Philly, but a marmot named Spokane Annie. (The name does not roll trippingly off the tongue.)

What with everyone, even from Spokane, yet, trying to get into the act, we’ve decided on a different approach.

This year, we do not have to rely upon the rodent. This year, spring will be early, all right — March 19 to be precise. Oh, in New York,?Chicago and even San Francisco, they’ll be having spring as usual on March 20, but then they are not as forward as we.

Here in Ketchikan —in Anchorage, even! — spring arrives at 9:14 p.m. on March 19. Take that, furry prognosticators!

There are other spring-leaning tendencies to be enjoyed in the interim. For instance, on Dec. 21, the sun rose at 8:12 and set at 3:17, for a dismal seven hours and five minutes of daylight.

Puny.

On Feb. 2, however, the sun will be working close to an hour of overtime, giving us eight hours and 47 minutes.

Robust!

By month’s end, we’ll be sneaking up on 11 hours of daylight in a day. (Even Barrow is starting to perk up by then, with nine hours and 19 minutes, which we might not have used but for its alliterative allure.)

Combining daylight minutes with our previous localized sociological folk wisdom — that rain on Feb. 2 foretells an early spring — we’re sitting pretty for 2012, don’t you think?